How to make friends before fundraising

1. Key Themes

Pre-raise relationship building "tilts the market" before the auction opens

Meeting investors early is not fundraising. It is how founders shape who ends up in their eventual process. The goal is a competitive market made up of investors who already want to be there.

"Pre-raise relationship building is what makes the eventual process fast and competitive since it ensures that when you do start fundraising your market is made up of high-quality investors who already want to be there. Think of it as tilting the market in your favor before the auction opens."

The balance to strike is calibrated disclosure:

"You want to impress investors enough that they lean in without divulging so much that they can fully evaluate your company and quietly decide."

In the AI era, relationships substitute for traditional metrics

With conventional progress signals less reliable, investors are leaning more heavily on relationships and intuition. This raises the cost of not having a network and the payoff for founders who do.

"Without being able to rely on traditional metrics or signals of company progress, investors are leaning more heavily on relationships and intuition to guide decisions. Without a proper network of relationships it is significantly harder to raise a substantial priced round."

"Conversely, founders with strong, excited VC relationships are most likely to receive pre-emptive offers and raise mega-rounds."

Investor discovery is a massive, under-appreciated problem

Founders vastly underestimate the investor universe and treat list-building casually, so rigorous research is a real edge.

"Ask a founder to name the funds that could lead their round and you'll get maybe fifteen or twenty funds with no partner-level detail. Meanwhile, we looked at the Venture Codex's dataset of every Series A in the US, EU, Canada, and Israel from 2023 through September 2026. We counted over 4,700 rounds, led by roughly 2,400 different funds."

"Fundraising has a massive discovery problem, so founders who treat list-building as real research have a real advantage."

Who makes the introduction determines how much signal it carries

Investors judge an opportunity partly through the credibility of the introducer, so founders should map and rank introduction paths for each target.

"The person who introduces you matters because investors make initial evaluations of opportunities through the credibility of that person. Avoid the connectors who introduce everyone to everyone since their introductions carry no signal."

The preference order, from the investor's perspective:

"1. Someone who has made them a lot of money (e.g a successful founder they backed) 2. A strong portfolio company of theirs that is your customer 3. One of your existing investors, reputable but clearly unable to lead this round 4. A trusted friend"

Social media is now a legitimate (and high-performing) investor channel

"I'm routinely amazed by the amount of money that gets invested by VCs who reach out to a founder upon seeing an impressive post. It's certainly the best performing 'cold' outreach strategy."

Existing investors amplifying a post acts as indirect social proof:

"If they publicly promote the post, ideally with their own gloss, it signals to other funds that they are strong advocates. This is effectively a form of mass warm intros, albeit indirectly."

2. Contrarian Perspectives

Optimize for partner quality, not firm brand

Against the common instinct to chase "Tier 1" logos, Harris argues prestige-chasing is often a poor strategy, and that founders should find out who actually adds value.

"There is a fetishization in the venture world of 'Tier 1' funds like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst who have funded some of the most iconic startups of the last two decades. But blindly gunning for prestigious names is often a poor strategy. Instead consult founders in your space about who actually helps versus who merely wires money, and read what investors write to understand what they care about."

Don't announce you're fundraising, even on social media

Conventional wisdom says to broadcast your raise. Harris argues that announcing it is a weak signal and constrains future storytelling. Instead, post proof points that create appetite.

"You should not post that you're going out to fundraise. It's a weird signal, and it constrains your storytelling in the future if the raise doesn't work out. Instead, post a white paper, customer video, or impressive KPIs."

He adds a caution on accuracy: "be careful here about posting things like revenue unless you are 100% absolutely sure you are right about what you're saying."

Enthusiastic angel help can backfire

Well-meaning introducers often sabotage the founder's intended low-stakes dynamic by implying an imminent raise.

"Angels love to help but their unscripted help sounds like: 'You have to meet this company, they're amazing, and I think they're raising in a month or two.' That can inadvertently trigger a process since the investor now reads everything you say as a pitch, and the relaxed, no-stakes meeting you wanted is gone."

The fix is to hand introducers a script: "we're not fundraising right now, I want to build relationships before we are, and here's the specific reason I want to meet you."

3. Companies Identified

Venture Codex

• Description: A dataset/data resource covering Series A rounds across the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
• Why mentioned: Used to quantify how fragmented the investor landscape is and to support the "discovery problem" argument.
• Quote: "We looked at the Venture Codex's dataset of every Series A in the US, EU, Canada, and Israel from 2023 through September 2026. We counted over 4,700 rounds, led by roughly 2,400 different funds."

Venture FRM

• Description: A relationship-management system for fundraising with a searchable database of venture funds and past investment data.
• Why mentioned: Recommended tool for tracking investor outreach like a sales funnel.
• Quote: "Treat this process like a sales funnel and track it in a system like the Venture FRM. There you can also search through a comprehensive list of venture funds and review past investment data to ensure they are relevant for you."

Sequoia Capital

• Description: Elite venture capital firm.
• Why mentioned: Cited as an example of a "Tier 1" brand that founders over-index on.
• Quote: "'Tier 1' funds like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst who have funded some of the most iconic startups of the last two decades."

Andreessen Horowitz

• Description: Elite venture capital firm.
• Why mentioned: Cited alongside Sequoia as a prestige "Tier 1" name.
• Quote: "'Tier 1' funds like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst..."

General Catalyst

• Description: Elite venture capital firm.
• Why mentioned: Cited alongside Sequoia and a16z as a prestige "Tier 1" name.
• Quote: "'Tier 1' funds like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst who have funded some of the most iconic startups of the last two decades."

X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn

• Description: Social platforms used by VCs.
• Why mentioned: X is highlighted as a high-performing channel for attracting investor interest; LinkedIn as a fallback.
• Quote: "The venture world is small and many VCs thrive on social media. You can use this to your advantage if you've been building in public or you have a strong social presence."

4. People Identified

Aaron Harris

• Description: Author of the newsletter and a book-length guide on raising capital.
• Why mentioned: Writes from an advisory perspective on how founders should navigate a changed venture landscape.
• Quote: "This is the eighth chapter in a book-length guide I'm writing about how to raise capital in a vastly different venture landscape."

No other individuals are named in the article.

5. Operating Insights

Build a researched, partner-level target list and run it like a sales funnel

Go beyond fund names. Identify decision-makers at funds that lead rounds at your stage, in your niche, and at your check size. Verify authority early, since pitching non-decision-makers wastes months.

"Decision-makers usually carry titles like 'General Partner' or 'Managing Director.' They sit on boards and write publicly about their investments. There's nuance here, and pitching non-decision-makers is one of the most common ways founders waste months of time. When in doubt, you can ask directly. Good investors respect the question."

Filter criteria to apply: "Investors who: You've had positive interactions with, or know personally; Have written or spoken seriously about your industry; Have led rounds in your niche (watching carefully for competitive portfolio conflicts)."

Script every introduction and cold outreach

Control the narrative by giving introducers exact language and using the same line in cold outreach, framing the meeting as relationship-building with a specific, personalized reason.

"Tell your introducer exactly what to say, and use the same line in any cold outreach: we're not fundraising right now, I want to build relationships before we are, and here's the specific reason I want to meet you, the thing you wrote, the company you backed. Everyone knows what the meeting is really about, but using the right script ensures you control the process."

Ask other founders for intros, and amplify proof-point posts through your network

Founders are an underused introduction source, and a strong public post gains power when your network, especially existing investors, promotes it.

"Founders are the best and most underused source. They remember what it was like, and it never hurts to ask."

"Leverage your network to like and promote the post. This is especially important for existing investors."

6. Overlooked Insights

Investors will "quietly decide" if you reveal too much too early

The warning against over-disclosure in early meetings implies that investors can form and lock in a private verdict without ever giving the founder feedback, a hidden risk of treating pre-raise coffees like pitches.

"You want to impress investors enough that they lean in without divulging so much that they can fully evaluate your company and quietly decide."

Posting inaccurate metrics publicly is a credibility risk

A brief aside flags that public KPI posts, especially revenue, carry reputational downside if figures are wrong. In a relationship-driven market, a visible mistake could damage the trust the strategy depends on.

"Be careful here about posting things like revenue unless you are 100% absolutely sure you are right about what you're saying."